Captain Pike on Star Trek
Jeffrey Hunter - who played Captain Pike in the first Star Trek pilot, agrees to reprise his role for the second pilot and the series. The public announcement of the second pilot is made. The show will be set five years after the first pilot. The new charachters are announced for the show. They include Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), Dr. McCoy (DeForrest Kelly), Lt. Sulu (George Takei), and James Doohan (Engineer Scott). They go on to announce that Majel Barrett will not be reprising her Number One role, that the role of First Officer will be played by Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock. The second pilot - "Where No Man has Gone Before" airs. In this pilot, William Shatner plays Gary Mitchell, an old friend of the Captain who is driven insane when an attempt to cross the galatic barrier infuses him with God-like powers. Leonard Nimoy, in an interview, states that the reason he believes the show is doing so well is because Jeffrey Hunter is willing to let the show focus on things other than himself most of the time. Operation: Annihilate! - the last show of the first season - is broadcast. It closes a very successful first season of a very highly rated show. The fifth season of Star Trek begins. NBC and Paramount announce that they are planning on having another 5 year mission for Star Trek. They also announce that Jeff Hunter has agreed to remain on the show as Captain Pike, and Leonard Nimoy and DeForrest Kelly will reprise their roles as well. Paramount announces that even though Star Trek continues to do very well both in first run and syndication, that the 10th season will be the last. They go on to announce that the cast is ready to move on, and that a Star Trek movie is planned. Star Trek: The Motion Picture is released. It features the original cast of Star Trek going out on a remodeled Enterprise. It had been in post-production when Star Wars was released. The movie is about the Klingon Emperor seeking help from the Federation when he's threatened by radical extremists seeking to overthrow him and start a new war. The Klingon Emperor is played by Jose Ferrer. Trek fans are suprised when they see Jeffrey Hunter for the first time. Except for a band of hair on the back and sides Hunter is now bald. Female fans are quite enaormed of this new look. "Moonraker," the 11th James Bond film, and the fourth with Roger Moore in the title role, premieres. William Shatner, a character actor who has played mostly bad guys or crazy guys in guest appearances on TV shows ranging from "The Twilight Zone" to "Bonanza" to "Columbo," finally has his starmaking role, as billionaire industrialist Hugo Drax, who wants to use stolen space shuttles and satellites to take over the world. Naturally, Mr. Bond has to stop him. Star Trek II: The Revenge of Khan comes to big screens. In this movie, Khan and his people were rescued from Ceti Alpha V by a scout ship. They manage to board and take the Excelsior - Starfleet's newest and most powerful Starship - on her way back from deep space trials. Captain Pike and crew are sent out to stop Khan. By the end of the film, the Enterprise crew manages to defeat Khan by destroying the Excelsior, but the damage to Enterprise is so severe that it also is a total loss. Star Trek III: The Rescue is released. Spock's escape pod was never recovered, the last fans had seen of him in the 2nd film was of him in the escape pod as it speed away from the wreckage of the Enterprise. It turns out that Spock was kidnapped by Romulans who hope to torture his vast knowledge out of him. Captain Pike's son was also on Romulus - he was a brilliant scientist who had been kidnapped five years ago. Captain Pike and crew go to the Romulan Homeworld in an undercover mission. They rescue Spock and also Pike's son with the help of a resistance movement who hopes to learn more about the Vulcan way. Pike's son makes the ultimate sacrifice to allow Pike, Spock, and crew to escape. They all return to Earth, and the film ends with the crew on board a new Enterprise, NCC-1701-A, which was based on the Excelsior model. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is released. In this film, a large probe goes to Earth looking for humpback whales. When the probe doesn't find them, it begins destroying all life on Earth. Captain Pike and crew, returning on the new Enterprise from deep space trials, use the slingshot effect to go back in time and rescue two humback whales. They do so, the probe is satisfied, and it goes away. Captain Pike is promoted to Fleet Captain at the end of the film, and receives new orders to go out and explore a new region of space. Star Trek: The Next Generation begins it's run. It is a new TV series set 75 years after Captain Pike's voyages, on a new Starship Enterprise, NCC-1701-C. It stars Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Star Trek V: The Undiscovered Country is released. This is the last film with Fleet Captain Pike and the original crew. In this film, the Klingon moon Praxis explodes, hitting Captain Sulu and his ship the Excelisor, NCC-2000-A. Spock begins peace talks with the Klingon Emperor. The Enterprise meets the ship bringing the Emperor to Earth. However the talks are sabotaged when the ship is apparently torpedoed by the Enterprise and the Klingon Emperor is killed. Pike and Dr. McCoy wind up on Rura Penthe after being convicted of the Klingon Emperor's murder. The new Emperor (played by David Warner) decides to try Pike and McCoy for murder, while continuing with the peace talks. Spock and the crew rescue Pike against orders, then they and the Excelisor battle the new Bird of Prey that can fire while cloaked. After major damage is done to both ships, they defeat the Klingon ship. Both crews then expose the actual murders and the conspiracy against peace, and save the Khitomer peace conference. This is the one film where Mark Lenard does double duty - he plays both the Klingon Emperor and Ambassador Sarek. Star Trek VI: Generations is released. It is the very last film with Pike, McCoy, and Chekov. The film begins fifteen years after the events in Star Trek V. It begins with Admirals Pike and McCoy accompaning Captain Chekov on his new ship, Enterprise NCC-1701-B as they go on a short PR jaunt around the solar system. While on this jaunt, they have to go rescue alien ships from a strange energy disturbance. Admiral Pike goes and makes crictical repairs to the ship, but apparently dies. Seventy five years later, the Enterprise-C has to fight a madman who's destroying star systems to get back into this energy disturbance. Admiral Pike comes back to help Captain Picard fight this madman, but Pike dies due to injuries sustained in the fight. Jeffrey Hunter, on an appearance on the Tonight Show, tells Jay Leno that his hair had begun thinning during the last year of the Star Trek TV show. About a year after the end of the series most of his hair was gone. He said that Gene Roddenbery wanted him to wear a toupee during filming of the first movie, but Hunter refused to do so. Hunter said it took several months before Roddenbery finally accepted Hunter's new look, and that Roddenbery even showed up one night with a "Guarnteed Hair Resotration Tonic." After the first film, Hunter's lack of hair stopped being an issue because executives felt for Hunter to be going back and forth would be too confusing for fans. Jeffery Hunter admits in an interview that he nearly turned down the option to retain his role as Captain Pike during the series. He goes on to say that he was glad that he didn't, and said he wonders at times what would've happened if he had left the show - if it would've been better or worse. In an amazing coincidence Jeffery Hunter and DeForrest Kelly both die on this day. It's reported that Hunter asked about Kelly right before he died, not realizing that Kelly had proceeded him by about two hours. Star Trek: Nemesis is released. It is the eighth Star Trek film. It's the last film with the Enterprise-C as that ship is a total loss (like at the end of the 2nd film) after the final battle with Picard's clone Shinzon.